IMac abruptly shuts off and makes a clicking noise

I have posted a topic similar to this a good while back. Anyway, let me tell you about my problem. I have an iMac G3 Snow, 500MHz, 128 megs of RAM, and a 20 GB HD. I received this computer from a friend after he was fed up on trying to make it work and he gave it to me. This iMac has been acting very peculiar, because I have been able to turn this machine on and it will work for a few minutes, and then will loose all power. When this happens, the display goes out, the HD cannot be heard, and the power button will start flickering. (It is not in a sleep mode) Accompanied by this is a faint clicking noise that emits from the iMac and will just stay in that state. I have been fooling around with it for a while, and have noticed if I put the computer on it's side, or upside down, it will almost always power up and work correctly. I don't know what is doing it (maybe something is touching) but I am hoping you people might be able to help out.

I have been fooling around with it for a while, and have noticed if I put the >computer on it's side, or upside down, it will almost always power up and work >correctly.
Wow that's some good diagnostic technique. Good job.
The one thing that comes to mind is the flyback transformer. It's the big tall black thing on the computer's right side. I have seen them with bad soldering to the PAV board. If you take the bottom off (4 screws) you can see it through the hole that you can also adjust the screen voltage and focus. This thing puts out killer voltages so no messing with it with anything metallic or conductive. A 12" plastic ruler or plastic chopstick is good. Power the computer up and if you can make it fault by putting pressure on the flyback then it's probably the soldering on that part. Easy to do but hard to get that PAV out.
eMail me for more info.
Richard

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